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Hokitika Guardian, 28 June 1928, Page 2

As matters arc falling out politically in the Commonwealth, the Labour party is not having a. very smooth run. Tho Tasmanian Labour Government was-lienten recentlj-, and the Australian Labour press has been at some pains to explain the reason why. The opinion actually reached as to tho cause seems rather amusing: Labour ill Now South Wales lias drawn the moral, says the Sydney “Guardian,” that Air Lyons in Tasmania was not Red enough—he did not “faithfully serve the workers.” Tt must bo difficult for Labour to find the shade of Red just deep enough to ho fashionable. Air Lyon was too pale a pink. Air Lang too bright a carmine. Anyone else would think that the idiotic strike of Ships’ Cooks was enough to make little Tasmania tired of Labour tendencies. In sucessivo breaths, tho Australian trade unions howled “solidarity” and then howled at tho cooks to go back to work. This strike has been a pitiful example of incompetence and disorganisation in union leadership. No wonder tho weary Labour voters in Tasmania let the poll pass by without enthusiasm; because all that Tasmania got from the “comrades” on the mainland was a threat that the island would be left without communication—a stranded Italia of the South. In this way Labour as organised in Australia is being found out and there is a reason why Tasmania should have grown tired of a Labour administration. The same feeling manifested itself in New South Wales when the Lang Government was defeated. These arc object lessons for other States or countries where La.lxmr aims at political office. In New Zea.aiul Air Holland has been stumping the country, and offering a very generous programme to all and sundry,, but he fails to explain where all the money is to come from to attempt to do all he promises. Farmers in particular, as the producers of so much of the clountry’s idea,lth, should study the position carefully, for the policy of the Labour Government to he is to care specially for the now producer, keep him in steady employment at union wage with limited hours of work, and see also that he is well safeguarded with a generous family allowance and other extras, all requiring hundreds of thousands of pounds, which at the beginning and the end must come primarily from the land. On top of this excessive financial bleeding there will be th© demand for higher wages, shorter hours, failing which along may come a dislocating strike to enforce excessive demands. The policy of the Labour party ap,pears to l>e to penalise the country heavily without a serious policy to meet its promises either equitably or economically. The wisdom of avoiding Labour government is therefore all the more apparent.